City Commissioner: Philly Should Cease Email Deletion Policy

City Commissioner Stephanie Singer urges a change in policy regarding Philadelphia’s habit of deleting emails older than 50 days, according to The Public Record.

During a campaign fundraiser at a Philadelphia law firm, Singer told the Record last week:

“But how will my ‘boss,’ the people of Philadelphia, hold me and my colleagues accountable while the City erases our email trail? How many important right-to-know requests yield nothing because the emails have disappeared? How many ethics or fraud investigations are stymied by this see-no-evil, hear-no-evil, save-no-evil policy?”

Revelation of this de-facto policy came to light after an expose from Newsworks‘ Holly Otterbein published earlier this month. As it currently stands, city employees may arbitrarily delete emails fifty days or older; many employees do not have proper training in Pennsylvania’s Right-to-Know law.